


Woy Mini-Fic-A-Thon 2016 - Exclusives

by 3amepiphany



Series: Woy Mini-Fic-A-Thon 2016 [6]
Category: Wander Over Yonder
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-03
Updated: 2016-07-03
Packaged: 2018-07-19 18:41:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7373134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3amepiphany/pseuds/3amepiphany
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Overnights aren't snooze-fests for the best security detail on the Skull Ship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Woy Mini-Fic-A-Thon 2016 - Exclusives

**Author's Note:**

> http://omegalovaniac.tumblr.com/post/146828153784/any-chance-for-a-black-eye-fic-where-andy-finds
> 
> To submit a prompt: http://omegalovaniac.tumblr.com/post/146742635229/woy-mini-fic-a-thon

Ok!

* * *

 

***

“Wait, go back a bit.”

Bean rewound the footage manually using the control knob, going slowly and staring at the screen just as intensely as Andy was. And then they saw it. They played it frame by frame a few times now that they had found and isolated it, and were pretty astounded to see it. She wasn’t restrained.

“Do you think he’s still awake at this hour?” the cameraman asked.

“Likely. The guy doesn’t sleep. Ever.”

“Let me get the gear.”

They approached the door to the main hallway leading to Peepers’ quarters, and he pressed the buzzer on the intercom. There wasn’t a response, so he buzzed it again. After a moment, there was a soft clicking noise, and then the Commander grumbling angrily, “It’s two-o’clock in the morning and some of us are sleeping. Is this an emergency?”

Bean gave Andy an exasperated look.

“Uh,” Andy said quickly, “Uh, Sir, I’m sorry to have to bother you so late but this is Andy, you know, from the security offices, and it’s imperative that I speak with you, uh, personally.”

They waited, and then the intercom clicked again. “Is there a problem?”

“Well, Sir, no, but–”

“If there’s a problem you can submit a report as usual, otherwise it can wait until the morning, I imagine, perhaps when your shift ends,” came the dismissal.

They looked at each other and went back to the console room, and as Bean set aside his equipment for the next while, Andy sat back down in his chair and thought a bit more about this. Perhaps it was a good thing they had a little time to prepare; he’d planned on just asking the first questions that would come to him but he realized that was probably the worst way to go about this. He didn’t imagine anyone else knew. Couldn’t imagine. They’d watched this happen on a fluke, he felt. Andy took a few moments to observe the rest of the ship as it was at the current moment, and, satisfied with it for the time being, he pulled the clip up again.

“Here’s what I know,” he said, half thinking aloud and half using Bean as a sounding board for it. “The zbornak and her cohort are high-profile prisoners.”

“Lord Hater’s most wanted,” Bean said, pulling up his own rolling chair and taking a seat to watch some of the video feeds and go through the day’s security logs.

“So that falls in line with him escorting one or both of them to the Torture room.”

“I’ve never seen him take the Wander guy. Just the zbornak.”

“Well, she’s a bit more of a physical threat than Wander. Also, I imagine Lord Hater would want the little guy for his own punishments. But that never happens. Lord Hater always sleeps in and they always escape anyways once she’s escorted back to her cell in the early morning hours.” This was par for the course at this point, but he pulled up older footage of the last few times the pair had been captured and detained to look at it, too.

Peepers would always retrieve the zbornak, escort her down the hallway towards the Torture Room, and that was that.

And she was always restrained, per protocol for prisoners.

Bean scooted over a bit to watch it too. “Why are they going into the service door to the maintenance hallways?”

“That’s the far door into the Torture Room.”

“No, it’s not.”

This, paired with the clip of the Commander and the zbornak - clearly unrestrained despite her dangerous billing, let alone protocol - in the elevator, gave Andy an even more serious pause. Quickly, he tried pulling up footage from the hallways near the Commander’s and Lord Hater’s living quarters. Nothing. There were no cameras down that hallway past the door they’d just been standing in front of. But there was service access to it. He had Bean access the past schedules for the Torture Room - this was moot; there wasn’t anything listed out of the ordinary. Her name, “Zbornak, S” and her detainee number were there next to the 2200 time slot. They pulled up the one for this evening, and were surprised to see the entry “Placeholder, A”. Andy facepalmed. This was ridiculous.

They waited out the rest of their shift by thinking of who they ought to go speak with and what questions they should ask. And watching the cameras along the way from the Commander’s quarters, the Torture Room, and the holding cells. Sure enough, there they were, exiting that same door they’d entered, and coming back to the holding cells. She was restrained and very obviously making sure of that as they traveled, and she looked angry but no worse for wear, suspiciously, for someone who had just spent about seven hours in a torture room.

Bean suggested that it was just light interrogation, or perhaps there was a bigger psychological element to it. The Commander was a bit off like that.

As they watched the Commander head back down the hallway, and towards the bridge, Andy thought they might check the Torture Room logs one last time. Instead of “Placeholder, A”, it now read, “Zbornak, S”.

“So do we start with the Commander or do we go see if we can catch her before they escape?” Bean asked. But before they could figure that one out, the alarm system went off just as their relief shift entered the console room. They’d have to start with the Commander. After this hubbub, of course.

They approached the bridge, camera equipment in tow and determination spurring them on through their normal sleep time. The Commander granted them a few minutes of conversation, no doubt assuming that it was about the escape of the prisoners yet again. He had on an expression of tired stress, and he waited patiently for them in the hallway just outside of the door as they rushed to set up the shot and get ready. Bean signaled that they were filming, and Andy started in of course, with mentioning the successful escape and evasion. These two sure were crafty adversaries and it was very obvious that they required special handling while they were aboard. “Once back from an overnight stay in the illustriously glorious Torture Rooms, is it safe to say that the security crew in the holding cells did their best to follow procedures down to the very last dot of an ‘i’?”

“To my knowledge, yes. This is commonplace with Wander and the zbornak, I’m honestly not surprised that it’s happened again. They are wily and relentless despite all of our efforts.”

“And in transport of the prisoners to and from the Torture Room, which, from reports, you handle yourself, sir… do you follow the same protocols and procedures?”

The Commander paused for a moment before answering into the microphone. “Protocol is protocol.”

“Do you oversee these torture sessions yourself, sir?”

“Not in their entirety, no. I do retire to my quarters at some point. I _do_ sleep,” he emphasized, eyeing the both of them in a manner that pulled a small reaction out of them; Bean looked out from behind the camera at Andy and Andy shuffled from one foot to the other before bringing the mic back to use that comment as a segue.

“Yes, no one likes visitors in the middle of the night, sir.” It was disguised as an apology. He hoped it would fly.

It didn’t. The Commander cleared his throat and said very sternly, “Gentlemen, could we close this up? I have some incident reports to collate and my morning is already very tightly scheduled.”

So tempted to drop the big bomb, Andy didn’t. He asked if the Commander had any words for the crew in the face of this incident, and what they might take away from it all for the next time. Because there most certainly would be a next time.

Commander Peepers looked squarely into the camera and said, “We all realize that with the threat of Lord Dominator gone it’s easy to want to relax and let our guard down. But so help me Grop, you will _not_. Eyes up, Watchdogs. Or you won’t see your next biggest threat due to your failures - me.” He excused himself and disappeared back into the command room. Andy and Bean stared at each other for a few quiet moments before deciding that they should go and get something to eat and e-mail their families back home before going to sleep for the day.

Later that night they sat quietly in the console room while they broadcast an older episode of “Eye on the Skullship” on their access channel.

Finally, late into the shift, Bean asked what they stood from pursuing this and getting answers. It seemed a bit invasive.

“She’s been this army’s number two enemy for how long, Bean? Something is up. I mean, if what I think is happening is actually happening…”

“Okay, but are we going to follow this as security or are we going to follow this as journalists?”

“We put everyone at risk either way, don’t we?”

The door to the console room opened, and they looked over their shoulders to see the Commander entering. They shuffled up and out of their chairs and saluted him, and he saluted them back and asked them both to take their seats again. They noticed that it was just him, and he’d closed the doors behind him.

“What do you two stand from pursuing this matter?” he asked them, folding his hands behind his back and watching them carefully.

“Sir?” Andy ventured, suddenly wondering if there was a replacement crew right outside the door, ready to take over once they’d been dismissed… or dispatched.

“The answers you’re looking for, it’s very invasive. I have been thinking about this all day. Wondering if you were after something specific. Promotions, money, bragging rights. What is it you want out of this?”

They looked at one another, and Bean gave him a pleading stare. “…Sir, we really just… want… an interview about it,” Andy said with a small shrug.

“As security detail, can I ask what you plan to do about the ramifications of bringing this to light?”

“We’re n-not entirely sure about that, sir, we hadn’t gotten that far. We were actually just discussing that.” He gestured at Bean, and Bean nodded emphatically.

The Commander regarded them quietly for a couple of long, awful, stomach-churning minutes. “I will talk to her to see what she thinks,” he said. “I personally would like to wait for a more opportune time. We’re still sort of… new. I’m worried this might cause some pre-considered strain that we aren’t ready to address yet. But. Assuredly, you will keep this to yourselves until we figure out an arrangement?”

They nodded.

He shook his head. “I had a feeling we’d forgotten something important but I couldn’t be sure.”

Andy offered a small smile and a “It happens, sir.”

The Commander blinked, staring at him. “…Good eye, Andy. This is why you’re here.” And with that, he gave them a small salute, they stood and returned it, and he left, closing the door behind him again.

They stood there for a while before Andy turned to Bean and said, “…Documentary?”


End file.
